On a former occasion, the name of Kami has been mentioned
as universally given in India to the Turks as coming in place of the
Romans.
DeFaria therefore was mistaken in deriving it from the province
of Romania or Thrace. - E.]
[Footnote 186: Perhaps that now called Jaffrabad. - E.]
About this time the Portuguese cruisers had taken twenty-seven ships
belonging to the zamorin, all richly laden. Being perplexed by the great
losses he was continually sustaining through the Portuguese superiority
at sea, the sovereign of Calicut made overtures towards an
accommodation; and in a treaty of peace gave permission to the
governor-general to build a fort in the island of Chale, in a river
that falls into the sea about three leagues from Calicut, which is
navigable by boats all the way to the foot of the Gaut mountains.
Urinama, a heathen, was at this time rajah of Chale, and both he and
the neighbouring rajah of Tanore, who were subjects to the zamorin, were
anxious to throw off their subjection to that prince, and to enter into
alliance with the Portuguese, in hopes of becoming rich by participating
in their trade. Immediately upon procuring the consent of the zamorin to
construct the fort, Nuno set out from Goa with 150 sail of vessels, in
which were 3000 Portuguese troops and 1000 native Lascarines. So much
diligence was used in carrying on the work, even the gentlemen
participating in the labour, that in twenty-six days it was in a
defensible situation, being surrounded by a rampart nine feet thick and
of sufficient height, strengthened by towers and bastions or bulwarks at
proper places.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 357 of 809
Words from 97284 to 97561
of 221361
